SAFER to Denver Council: Let's Make a Deal!

Proponents of a marijuana reform initiative that would make adult pot use the city’s lowest law enforcement priority have offered the Denver council and mayor – who are none too happy that the initiative earned enough signatures to make it on the November ballot – a chance to get the damn thing off the ballot.

In an Aug. 23 press release, Mason Tvert, director of the marijuana reform group Safer Alternatives for Enjoyable Recreation says that his organization would agree to nix the intiative if – and only if – the council and Mayor John Hickenlooper (owner of a local brewery) agree to a few – ahem – modest terms. First, SAFER wants the city leaders to officially “recognize” that adult marijuana use poses less harm to the user, and to the city, than does adult alcohol abuse. Second, based on that new awareness, SAFER is asking that the council “commit to exploring” what marijuana policy reforms the city can implement that reflect the fact that adult pot use poses less harm to user and city. And, third, SAFER is asking that the city impose a moratorium on all citations for possession of less than one ounce of pot by adults over 21 during the Democratic National Convention in August 2008.

If their conditions are met, Tvert says SAFER would be happy to yank the lowest-priority initiative from the upcoming ballot. Whether that’ll work is entirely unclear, though seemingly unlikely since the city hasn’t exactly embraced pot policy reforms – including a successful 2005 ballot initiative that directed the city to remove criminal penalties for private pot use by adults. Still, Tvert remains forever optimistic: “Every objective study ever conducted on marijuana has concluded that it is a far safer recreational drug than alcohol,” he said in a press statement. “We hope our city officials will consider the relative harms of these two substances, as well as the potentially dangerous effects of a policy that pushes adults toward the more harmful of the two [substances]” – that is, alcohol use. “The city has every right to stop arresting adults for possessing small amounts of marijuana, and we hope they will stand up for the voters who elected them and exercise that right.”